[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 165 (Thursday, December 20, 2012)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8318-S8320]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
ELIMINATING THE ``ADULT ENTERTAINMENT'' SECTION OF THE CLASSIFIED
ADVERTISING WEB SITE BACKPAGE.COM
Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Judiciary
Committee be discharged from further consideration of S. Res. 439 and
the Senate proceed to its consideration.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
The clerk will report the resolution by title.
The legislative clerk read as follows:
A resolution (S. Res. 439) expressing the sense of the
Senate that Village Voice Media Holdings, LLC should
eliminate the ``adult entertainment'' section of the
classified advertising website Backpage.com.
There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the
resolution.
Mr. KIRK. Mr. President, we often hear and read about stories
of young boys and girls in foreign countries forced into sexual
slavery. Helpless children as young as 11 and 12 years old are
threatened, abused, raped, and sold for sex. But we rarely hear about
the child sex trafficking that happens here at home in Chicago, New
York, Atlanta, Miami, and most major metropolitan cities in the United
States. Experts estimate that each year as many as 300,000 children are
at risk of commercial sexual exploitation in the U.S. An alarming 40
percent of incidents investigated by federally funded task forces on
human trafficking between 2008 and 2010 involved the sexual
exploitation of a child, according to a Bureau of Justice Statistics
report.
The numbers are rising, in part because it has become frighteningly
simple to order a child prostitute on the Internet. One merely needs to
look at the classified ads on Backpage.com, the leading Web site for
prostitution advertising in the United States according to the Advanced
Interactive Media, AIM, Group. The website's ``adult entertainment''
section generates more than 80 percent of total prostitution
advertising revenue on the web. This section includes services such as
``escorts'' and ``body rubs,'' a thinly veiled code for prostitution.
Just a few clicks on this site easily enables ``johns'' to purchase
children for sex. Law enforcement believes that the existence of
Backpage encourages the recruitment of victims for sexual exploitation
because it allows traffickers to operate out of sight from police
patrols.
Backpage.com is owned and operated by Village Voice Media Holdings,
the former parent company of the alternative weekly Village Voice
publications. The company, which makes an estimated $26 million per
year from these ads, claims it polices the ads on its site, but the
statistics and devastating reports say otherwise. According to the
National Association of Attorneys General, 23 States have cumulatively
filed more than 50 charges against suspects trafficking minors on
Backpage.com.
In August 2011, nine members of the Vice Lords and other south and
west side of Chicago gangs were charged with operating a major sex
trafficking ring. Some of the girls forced into sexual slavery were as
young as 12 years old. Victims suffered immense abuse, including
beatings, branding, tattooing, death threats, being locked in car
trunk, and forced to sleep outside even in cold Chicago winters. The
gang members used Backpage.com to facilitate their operation.
In August 2012, Marques Williams was arrested and charged with a
Federal sex trafficking complaint for trafficking a 15-year-old girl in
Rochester, NY. Advertising the young girls services on Backpage.com,
Williams forced her to take up to 15 customers a day.
In December 2012, Fernando Gonzales was sentenced to 20 years in
prison for child sex trafficking. Fernando raped and impregnated a 16-
year-old girl, then forced her into prostitution and advertised her
services on Backpage.com. When the victim tried to escape, Fernando
threatened to kill her and her child and then carved his initial into
her arm.
Unfortunately, there are too many stories like these. As news reports
of
[[Page S8319]]
pimps and traffickers using Backpage.com to advertise sexual services
by minors continue to increase, we cannot leave our children
defenseless. The profit-first mentality at Village Voice Media, which
prioritizes the rights of pimps, not children, must end.
Fifty-one attorneys general, 36 clergymen, dozens of anti-trafficking
organizations, columnists and editorial boards across the country, and
240,000 individuals through change.org have called on Village Voice
Media to shutdown the ``adult entertainment'' section on Backpage.com.
Even John Buffalo Mailer, son of Village Voice's co-founder, publicly
urged Backpage.com to eliminate the section.
Over the past year, I joined with several of my colleagues in a
bipartisan fashion to work to prevent children from being exploited and
trafficked on Backpage.com. In March 2012, 18 Senators joined me in a
letter to the Chairman and CEO of Village Voice Media Holdings,
demanding the elimination of the adult entertainment section on the
classified advertising Web site. I then led an effort to bring to the
attention of those advertising on Village Voice publications the kinds
of activities supported by the company. As a result, eight companies
and organizations responded to our letter announcing the end of their
advertising relationship with the publications. This had a clear
effect, as a number of then-executives at Village Voice Media Holdings
spun off the weekly publications as a new company in an apparent effort
to circumvent the public relations disaster Backpage.com rightly caused
Village Voice Media. But children continue to be bought and sold on
Backpage.com.
Senator Blumenthal and I introduced S. Res. 439 as part of this
effort to curb online child sexual exploitation. The legislation calls
on Village Voice Media Holdings to eliminate the ``adult
entertainment'' section of Backpage.com. By passing S. Res. 439, the
U.S. Senate will present a united front in the fight against online
child sex trafficking. We will be making it clear that the American
public strongly condemns the facilitation and perpetuation of human
trafficking by website operators. I want to especially thank Senators
Blumenthal, Rubio, and Cornyn for their great partnership and
leadership on this effort, hope the rest of our colleagues will join us
and pass S. Res. 439.
Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the
resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motions to
reconsider be laid upon the table, with no intervening action or
debate, and any statements related to the measure be printed in the
Record.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
The resolution (S. Res. 439) was agreed to.
The preamble was agreed to.
The resolution, with its preamble, reads as follows:
S. Res. 439
Whereas, according to the Department of Justice, there was
a 59 percent increase in identified victims of human
trafficking worldwide between 2009 and 2010;
Whereas, according to the Department of Health and Human
Services, human trafficking is the fastest-growing criminal
enterprise in the world;
Whereas experts estimate that up to 300,000 children are at
risk of sexual exploitation each year in the United States;
Whereas experts estimate that the average female victim of
sex trafficking is forced into prostitution for the first
time between the ages of 12 and 14, and the average male
victim of sex trafficking is forced into prostitution for the
first time between the ages of 11 and 13;
Whereas the Bureau of Justice Statistics found that 40
percent of incidents investigated by federally funded task
forces on human trafficking between 2008 and 2010 involved
prostitution of a child or the sexual exploitation of a
child;
Whereas, according to the classified advertising consultant
Advanced Interactive Media Group (referred to in this
preamble as ``AIM Group''), Backpage.com is the leading
United States website for prostitution advertising;
Whereas Backpage.com is owned by Village Voice Media
Holdings, LLC (referred to in this preamble as ``Village
Voice Media'');
Whereas the National Association of Attorneys General
tracked more than 50 cases in which charges were filed
against persons who were trafficking or attempting to traffic
minors on Backpage.com;
Whereas Myrelle and Tyrelle Locket--
(1) in February 2011 were each sentenced to 4 years in
prison on charges of trafficking of persons for forced labor
or services for operating an Illinois sex trafficking ring
that included minors; and
(2) used Backpage.com to facilitate the prostitution;
Whereas Arthur James Chappell--
(1) in March 2011 was sentenced to 28 years in prison on
charges of sex trafficking of a minor for running a
prostitution ring with at least 1 juvenile victim in
Minnesota; and
(2) used Backpage.com to facilitate the prostitution;
Whereas Brandon Quincy Thompson--
(1) in April 2011 was sentenced to life imprisonment on
charges of sex trafficking a child by force for running a
South Dakota prostitution ring that involved multiple
underage girls; and
(2) used Backpage.com to facilitate the prostitution;
Whereas Clint Eugene Wilson--
(1) in May 2011 was sentenced to 20 years in prison on
charges of sex trafficking of a minor by force, fraud, or
coercion for forcing a 16-year-old Dallas girl into
prostitution, threatening to assault her, and forcing her to
get a tattoo that branded her as his property; and
(2) used Backpage.com to facilitate the prostitution;
Whereas Demetrius Darnell Homer--
(1) in August 2011 was sentenced to 20 years in prison on
charges of sex trafficking of a minor for violently forcing a
14-year-old Atlanta girl into prostitution, controlling her
through beatings, threatening her with a knife, shocking her
with a taser in front of another underage girl whom he had
placed in prostitution, and forcing her to engage in
prostitution while she was pregnant with his child; and
(2) used Backpage.com to facilitate the prostitution;
Whereas Leighton Martin Curtis--
(1) in February 2012 was sentenced to 30 years in prison on
charges of sex trafficking of a minor and production of child
pornography for pimping a 15-year-old girl throughout
Florida, Georgia, and North Carolina to approximately 20 to
35 customers each week for more than a year; and
(2) used Backpage.com to facilitate the prostitution;
Whereas Ronnie Leon Tramble--
(1) in March 2012 was sentenced to 15 years in prison on
charges of sex trafficking through force, fraud, and coercion
for forcing more than 5 young women and minors into
prostitution over a period of at least 5 years throughout the
State of Washington, during which time period he constantly
subjected the victims to brutal physical and emotional abuse;
and
(2) used Backpage.com to facilitate the prostitution;
Whereas, according to AIM Group, 80 percent of online
prostitution advertising revenue for the month of February
2012 was attributed to Backpage.com;
Whereas, according to AIM Group, the number of Backpage.com
advertisements for ``escorts'' and ``body rubs'', a thinly
veiled code for prostitution, increased by nearly 5 percent
between February 2011 and February 2012;
Whereas, according to AIM Group, Backpage.com earned an
estimated $26,000,000 from prostitution advertisements
between February 2011 and February 2012;
Whereas Backpage.com vice president Carl Ferrer
acknowledged to the National Association of Attorneys General
that the company identifies more than 400 ``adult
entertainment'' posts that may involve minors each month;
Whereas the actual number of ``adult entertainment'' posts
on Backpage.com each month that involve minors may be far
greater than 400;
Whereas, according to the National Association of Attorneys
General, Missouri investigators found that the review
procedures of Backpage.com are ineffective in policing
illegal activity;
Whereas, in September 2010, Craigslist.com removed the
``adult services'' section of its website following calls for
removal from law enforcement and advocacy organizations;
Whereas, by September 16, 2011, 51 attorneys general of
States and territories of the United States had called on
Backpage.com to shut down the ``adult entertainment'' section
of its website;
Whereas, on September 16, 2011, the Tri-City Herald of the
State of Washington published an editorial entitled
``Attorneys general target sexual exploitation of kids'',
writing, `` . . . we'd also encourage the owners of
Backpage.com to give the attorneys general what they are
asking for'';
Whereas, on October 25, 2011, 36 clergy members from across
the United States published an open letter to Village Voice
Media in the New York Times, calling on the company to shut
down the ``adult entertainment'' section of Backpage.com;
Whereas, on December 2, 2011, 55 anti-trafficking
organizations called on Village Voice Media to shut down the
``adult entertainment'' section of Backpage.com;
Whereas, on December 29, 2011, the Seattle Times published
an editorial entitled ``Murders strengthen case against
Backpage.com'', writing, ``Backpage.com cannot continue to
dismiss the women and children exploited through the website,
nor the 3 women in Detroit who are dead possibly because they
were trafficked on the site. Revenue from the exploitation
and physical harm of women and minors is despicable. Village
Voice Media, which owns Backpage.com, must shut this site
down. Until then, all the pressure that can be brought to
bear must continue.'';
[[Page S8320]]
Whereas, on March 18, 2012, Nicholas Kristof of the New
York Times wrote in an opinion piece entitled ``Where Pimps
Peddle Their Goods'' that ``[t]here are no simple solutions
to end sex trafficking, but it would help to have public
pressure on Village Voice Media to stop carrying prostitution
advertising.'';
Whereas, on March 29, 2012, Change.org delivered a petition
signed by more than 240,000 individuals to Village Voice
Media, calling on the company to shut down the ``adult
entertainment'' section of Backpage.com;
Whereas, on January 12, 2012, John Buffalo Mailer, son of
Village Voice co-founder Norman Mailer, joined the Change.org
petition to shut down the ``adult entertainment'' section of
Backpage.com, stating, ``For the sake of the Village Voice
brand and for the sake of the legacy of a great publication,
take down the adult section of Backpage.com, before the
Village Voice must answer for yet another child who is abused
and exploited because you did not do enough to prevent it.'';
Whereas, on March 30, 2012, a private equity firm owned by
Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. completed a deal to sell its 16
percent ownership stake in Village Voice Media back to
management;
Whereas, in M.A. ex rel. P.K. v. Village Voice Media
Holdings, LLC (809 F. Supp. 2d 1041 (E.D. Mo. 2011)), the
United States District Court for the Eastern District of
Missouri held that section 230 of the Communications Act of
1934 (47 U.S.C. 230) (as added by section 509 of the
Communications Decency Act of 1996 (Public Law 104-104; 110
Stat. 137)) protects Backpage.com from civil liability for
the ``horrific victimization'' the teenage plaintiff suffered
at the hands of the criminal who posted on the website to
perpetrate her vicious crimes; and
Whereas the Communications Decency Act of 1996 (Public Law
104-104; 110 Stat. 56) and the amendments made by that Act do
not preclude a service provider from voluntarily removing a
portion of a website known to facilitate the sexual
exploitation of minors in order to protect children in the
United States: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the Senate--
(1) supports the efforts of law enforcement agencies to
provide training to law enforcement agents on how to identify
victims of sex trafficking, investigate cases of sex
trafficking, prosecute sex trafficking offenses, and rescue
victims of sex trafficking;
(2) supports services for trafficking victims provided by
the Federal Government, State and local governments, and non-
profit and faith-based organizations, including medical,
legal, mental health, housing, and other social services; and
(3) calls on Village Voice Media Holdings, LLC to act as a
responsible global citizen and immediately eliminate the
``adult entertainment'' section of the classified advertising
website Backpage.com to terminate the website's rampant
facilitation of online sex trafficking.
____________________